Kodoku

Chapter 25

Gojo and Sarah stood in the center of the street, twenty feet apart, the earth beneath them shattered and scarred from their hours-long battle. A crater had formed where their cursed energy had collided, the surrounding buildings reduced to rubble. Their bodies were bruised, battered, and covered in cuts, the sweat mixing with the dust from the debris to form a gritty layer on their skin. Both were gasping for air, their strength depleted, and yet neither was willing to back down.

Sarah, drenched in sweat and blood, tried to taunt Gojo as she always did, but the exhaustion had caught up with her. Her breath hitched in her throat, her chest heaving as she struggled to force words out. She lifted a hand, skeletal fingers twitching, but the effort left her trembling. Even her movements, once fluid and wild, had become sluggish, her limbs barely responding to her will.

Gojo, though equally drained, kept his eyes locked on her. His vision was blurred by fatigue, but he could still see the faint marks of Sukuna’s influence flickering across Sarah’s skin, like a dark brand trying to emerge from beneath the surface. The cursed marks rippled for a moment, but they wouldn’t be enough. They couldn’t save her now.

He knew this was his moment. This was it—the chance to end it all, to stop the madness before it consumed her entirely. No one had ever fought him this hard. No one had pushed him to this point, not even close. Sarah was good, better than anyone had given her credit for. But she wasn’t trained like he was. She didn’t have the years of discipline, the technique, or the experience that came with being the strongest.

His fists tightened. He couldn't afford to hesitate. He had to end this.

In the blink of an eye, Gojo dashed forward, his body a blur as he closed the distance between them. Sarah barely registered his movement before his elbow connected with her temple, the force of the blow sending her staggering backward. She swayed on her feet, her vision darkening for a split second, and that was all Gojo needed.

In an instant, he was on her. His foot slammed into her chest with enough power to send her crashing into the ground, dust and debris flying into the air around them. Sarah groaned, her body too worn out to fight back as Gojo loomed over her. She tried to lash out with her skeletal arm, but her nails only raked across his calf weakly, too late to stop what was coming.

Gojo didn’t waste a second. He raised his hand, casting his domain, and in a heartbeat, the area was enveloped in the Limitless Void. The space around them distorted, reality itself bending to Gojo’s will as he trapped Sarah in the endless expanse of knowledge and nothingness. Her eyes glazed over, her movements slowing as the overwhelming barrage of information from the void consumed her senses. She tried to resist, but she couldn’t focus. She couldn’t fight back.

Gojo gritted his teeth and moved quickly. Grabbing her by the waist, he hoisted her limp body up and drove his fist into her stomach with brutal precision. She let out a strangled gasp, her body convulsing as the blow forced her to regurgitate one of Sukuna’s fingers. They clattered to the ground in a grotesque mess.

Without giving her a moment to recover, Gojo struck again, and again, each blow harder than the last. His jaw clenched as he worked with cold determination, ignoring the pain radiating through his own body. He had to get every last one of those cursed fingers out of her. He couldn’t stop until it was done.

Sarah gagged and coughed, each hit wrenching more of Sukuna’s fingers from her body. One by one, they spilled onto the ground in a sickening pile. Her curses, barely coherent, mumbled from her bloodied lips as she weakly tried to push him away, but her strength was gone. She was barely conscious, her body betraying her under the weight of exhaustion and Gojo’s overwhelming power.

Finally, when all twenty of Sukuna’s fingers lay on the ground, coated in bile and blood, Gojo released her. Her body crumpled to the dirt, too weak to stand, her breath coming in ragged gasps.